Vancouver Giants players say they hadn’t heard anything about a prospective players union for major junior hockey until links to a Peterborough Examiner story started popping up on Twitter Sunday night.

A story on the Examiner’s web site on Sunday quoted Sandra Slater as a consultant to the Canadian Hockey League Players Association, and had her saying that the organization has been in the works for 14 months and expects to go public in 10 days.

The story also said that players from all three CHL leagues — the OHL, QMJHL and WHL — adopted a constitution at a Aug. 9 meeting, elected a board of governors and formed a bargaining committee.

Slater was quoted as saying that if 60 per cent of the players from across the country accept the union, the CHL would, under law, have to recognize it. The story also quoted a CHLPA press release as stating, “the player’s support on this venture has been overwhelming and we fully expect to have the majority of players signed up within the next coming days.”

Winger Brendan Gallagher, who is expected to forgo his 20-year-old campaign to play in the Montreal Canadiens system after four seasons with the GIants, admits players had been “joking in the dressing room for years,” about a union, but admits the news from Peterborough caught him off guard.

Vannieuwenhuizen says that he was “really indifferent about it.” Gallagher contended it would be “nice to have more people on your side.”

“Junior hockey is a great level and they groom you to make the jump to the NHL, but any chance you get to get more benefits, you’re going to be for it,” said Gallagher.

According to the Examiner, the CHPLA “aims to create better representation for junior hockey players regarding rights, education packages and compensations for their use in league branding as well as CHL and Hockey Canada events, particularly the world junior hockey championship.”

The Examiner quoted both Peterborough Petes goalie Andrew D’Agostini and Kitchener Rangers forward Matt Puempel as saying that they had not been contacted by the CHLPA. Slater told the Examiner that the players have been promised confidentiality throughout, so she was wasn’t surprised they weren’t admitting to knowing about the union.

Prominent player agent Gerry Johannson maintained that he “had heard rumblings, but I don’t know the guys involved.”

“You probably know as much as I do,” said the Edmonton-based Johannson, who, through the years, has represented Giants like Gallagher, Milan Lucic and Spencer Machacek.

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